Thanks for this end-of-the-year summary. I really want to take up some of your Chinese BL/bromance recs, and feel like (issues with finding stuff subbed aside), I probably just won't have the time till my kids are older. Right now, 90% of my video watching time is also my only time with my partner, so we watch things we can both enjoy, and I'm not sure that's his cup of tea. Alas. One day the kids will be grown up!

Thanks for your rec of The Expanse. I've only seen the pilot--not a good way to judge a series, but it left me cold. I have a resistance to The Expanse mostly because I miss the cultural worldbuilding of space opera, like Babylon 5, Lexx, Farscape, or Blake's 7. I feel weighed down by sci fi that seems to replicate most of the culture/problems I live in anyway, and The Expanse seems of that ilk--as was BSG, and I liked that show a lot, but I didn't realize at the time that all of futuristic TV sci fi--minus Star Trek--was going to in the direction talking about modern America/the modern global world with little attempt at any kind of different culture-building. Maybe The Expanse isn't wholly like that? In any case, your rec makes me feel I should give it a chance, and again I just lack time to give a series a chance for a year or two. Urgh.

Agreeing about Game of Thrones.

As to Star Wars, my view of TRoS seems sunnier than most, probably down to lowered expectations and the fact I've already had about 30 years of training in managing an internal Star Wars fanon that hugely diverges from any established canon, so what they do with canon just doesn't bother me that much. However, as to the three leads, I like them, but I agree their relationships are undeveloped. I don't primarily like them as a team, the way Luke, Leia, and Han were a team. I think Finn has a bit of an unrequited thing for Rey, and that comes across. And Finn and Poe come across as good friends, though I don't see the slashiness myself (mainly because Finn seems to have a thing for Rey). I find Rey and Kylo interesting and Poe and Leia very interesting, but yeah, it doesn't feel like it's about the three of them. Feels like Poe and Rey have barely met.